Keyword search tips
Most of the time entering a keyword like "campfires" or "bake ovens" or "permits" will get you started just fine.
But here are some simple operators you can experiment with to refine your search (think of these as a tiny query language).
Operator
|
Meaning
|
Example
|
Finds
|
+
|
AND operator; word must be included; use this most of the time
|
+apples +oranges
|
both "apples" and "oranges" must be found in the same document.
|
-
|
NOT operator; word must not be included
|
apples -oranges
|
"apples" must be found without the word "oranges".
|
*
|
wild card (must be appended to the end)
|
camp*
|
camp, camps, campfire, campfires, Campbell
|
<blank>
|
absence of an operator is interpreted as OR; any document with the word will be found
|
apples oranges
|
any document with either "apples" or "oranges" will be found
|
"<phrase>"
|
exact phrase; words enclosed in double quotes must be found exactly
|
"orange apples"
|
the phrase "orange apples" must be found
|
(<term>)
|
grouping; search terms in parentheses are evaluated separately
|
+bananas +(apples oranges)
|
find "bananas" with either "apples" or "oranges"
|
Note that keywords less than four characters long are ignored.
Keywords are searched in the Title, Caption, Location, Description, and Body of documents.
Keyword search does not look for the root of plurals. So "campfires" will not find "campfire", nor will "campfire" find "campfires". To find both use "campfire*".
Some (very commonly used) keywords are ignored altogether. These are called "stopwords".
For a list see stopwords.